Tag Archives: lifesong

As the northern winter closes in, it seems everyone is snuggling up inside … and reading books! Reviewers have recently taken notice of The Tale of the Lifesong fantasy series and are helping to spread the word.

The Slowest Bookworm mostly reads Young Adult fiction; occasionally adult romance, historical fiction, fantasy or thrillers. She’s not accustomed to tackling epic fantasy, which makes her reviews more interesting because she can form an opinion untainted by familiarity with the genre. She finally braved the mountain of words and disappeared into Eyri.

sounds of munching. a page moved. an i became an o, then a capital O, and suddenly, there was the bookworm emerging from the page, blinking, wondering where all the sprites had gone.

Now Zarost will tell you, it isn’t easy to get a worm on a hook, and this worm is crafty. Although she pretends to be idle she eats up words faster than the Wranglewrithe, so all that’s left of my copy of the review is: “… Main … Amazing … Great … In … Characters … And … Lifesong” but you can read the rest of The Riddler’s Gift review on the Slowest Bookworm’s site.

The verdict on The Riddler’s Gift? “Magical! I was hooked …”

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The Happy Booker reviews mainly epic, urban, and dark fantasy and most recently, Second Sight. Well it’s no fun being a parrot (just ask Zaul) and Zarost taught me that leaving out bits can make you holy, so I’ll recommend that you read the review of Second Sight on The Happy Booker’s book review site.

“I would recommend this to anyone that wants to be utterly swept away into a story of epic proportions. I was quite honestly blown away by this book …”

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Finally, Fantasy Book Review is on a mission to find the Top 100 Fantasy Books Of All Time. I would respond ‘I haven’t written them yet!’ but I’d better step quietly away from the whistling precipice. I’m glad to have impressed the reviewer enough for Second Sight to be selected to stand beside The Riddler’s Gift in their hall of fame and jostle merrily for position with the great names of fantasy.

They made an interesting comment on similarities. “If you are a fan of Stephen R Donaldson’s Thomas Covenant books then you will find much within that pleases you, especially if you wished they were slightly more light-hearted!” I found much to admire in Donaldson’s writing. It’s not a conscious decision to ‘write like him’ but I do try to take the best of what I’ve read and infuse my writing with the themes that excite me. Thanks to Donaldson, Hobb and Pratchett (and many others) I have a rich world of fantasy literature to draw upon for inspiration … but the Tale of the Lifesong is my own.

Although my books and specials are still available to US customers on greghamerton.com, the cost of international airmail makes some of the options expensive. So I’m delighted to announce that you can now buy the Tale of the Lifesong series from Amazon and save on the postage costs! See the bottom of the special deals page for details and links.

The Riddler’s Gift has been released in two parts, to make it more affordable for new readers who haven’t yet heard the Lifesong. Second Sight is in one volume, because if you have read The Riddler’s Gift, you’ll be wanting the whole of the sequel! It was also impossible to split Second Sight in the middle; the story is complex and spans more than 600 pages. The Riddler’s Gift was originally written in two parts, and so divides neatly in the middle of the story.

Another 5 star review, this time from Liviu Suciu of Fantasy Book Critic, a seasoned reviewer in the US who reads more fantasy novels than anyone I know. If you enjoy deep insight into the latest fantasy novels, I highly recommend checking out the website by clicking on the image.

Liviu wrote: “Second Sight” is the second Tale of the Lifesong following the author’s debut “The Riddler’s Gift”. While quite a traditional fantasy tale – the destined girl, the magical artifact, the mentor of the title, the nasty and tricky villains, the pseudo-medieval setting – “The Riddler’s Gift” enchanted me from the first pages with its beautiful and lyrical style and I followed the adventures of Tabitha Serannon and the assorted cast of characters to the superb and complete ending of the novel’s main thread.

However the big picture remained in the background with only hints and snippets given and indeed “Second Sight” picks up where “The Riddler’s Gift” ends and deals with the monumental – the creation and destruction of worlds, the relationship between Order and Chaos or Dark and Light – all embodied in the eons long conflict between Wizards of Order, Sorcerers of Chaos and Gods and Goddeses of Creation and Destruction.

Very high magic and big-words stuff, but despite my general avoidance of such, the beautiful writing and the great characters, especially Tabitha and The Riddler, compelled me to read and greatly enjoy this tale too.

A few advance reading copies of the new fantasy novel Second Sight went out last week. The first review has just come in from Samantha Shove:

“This book continues the promise of the epic fantasy laid down by Riddler’s Gift and follows the story with all the dry wit, humour, tenderness, magic, mystery and mayhem (actually there’s a hell of a lot more mayhem in this one, unsurprisingly considering where they’re travelling through) found in the first tale. Once again Hamerton’s writing pulls you deep into the story so you feel everything as they experience it, every victory and defeat, every moment of honesty and kindness, treachery and deceit, love and hate and most of all every moment of battle between Order and Chaos and of course the power of the Lifesong. Hamerton has definitely created a world and story to rival Tolkien’s LOTR (although this will always be the original and the best of the fantasy world) in all aspects of story-telling, character creation, other world creation and sheer epic-ness (not a real word, I know, nothing else would do). The only question left is…when oh when is the third instalment, so subtly alluded to by Twardy, going to be out?” > Read the full review on Goodreads

I’ve had a fantastic response from the community of readers on Goodreads. I started a competition two weeks ago, to spread the word about the upcoming release of new fantasy novel Second Sight. Today was the draw, and 812 people entered! Seems like everyone wants a copy. Five lucky winners will soon have their free books.

It’s a great system … I (hopefully) get some enthusiastic reviews of the book to help the publicity, and readers get the kind of books they are interested in.

If you’re not already on Goodreads, why don’t you sign up? It’s a simple process and is free. Once you’re in, you’re looking for something like my giveaway below (the draw is over, but it will take you through to the site and you can start from there). See what’s on offer this month by going to find books > giveaways.

Sometimes, it is really lovely to be told a story. I recorded an audiobook of The Riddler’s Gift, which plays out over 22 hours. But I’m not planning an audiobook for Second Sight, because of the many tricky voices and dialects involved in the story. I think I need the professionals on this one, to do it justice. I’m happy to offer you a reading from the first chapter, nonetheless. Join me for a few minutes of fireside story-telling.

Writing a fantasy novel involves years of silence, and talking to the small stone dragon on the top of my keyboard would probably get me committed to the loonybin. So I don’t utter a word, for a very long time. Now that The First Tale of the Lifesong is released, I’m delighted to share a few spoken words with you from the first chapter of The Riddler’s Gift.

Did you win a free copy of the new fantasy novel, Second Sight? Only 22 days to go! Thanks to all the readers of The Riddler’s Gift who sent in their short reviews as part of the Readers’ Review Competition. Their names were collected in Twardy Zarost’s hat. I held a random draw today. It didn’t matter what you wrote: if you responded, you had a chance! My assistant was there to judge the fairness of the draw. He may be small, but he is tough and he has a sharp eye. He even caught a cheater.

Watch the draw and find out if you won one of five free copies of Second Sight. There’s also a hint for another way to win a free copy … but hurry, that givewaway only has 2 weeks to run!

A question and answer session on what it’s like to write a fantasy novel (written when the first tale in the Lifesong fantasy series was released).

Q : How long did it take you to write The Riddler’s Gift?

A : Two years, full time. I find it impossible to write something with this scope in a ‘few stolen hours a day’. So I didn’t work on anything else for two years. It gets easier when you’re isolated. On a normal writing day I’m in my writing room by 8am and I don’t come out until 5pm, sometimes later. There’s no telephone in there, no internet connection. Just the white page, and the blinking cursor. If I don’t write, I know I’m in for a boring day.

Q : Does this ‘isolation style’ of writing put a strain on relationships?

A : Well, yes it does, at times I want to do nothing else than write. It’s a selfish occupation for most of the time. But my wife is my biggest fan, and she supports my writing immensely, so she’s happy to leave me alone in my eyrie. She does plead with me to read early drafts of the work in progress, but I don’t let anyone read those. It’s like showing someone a painting while you’re still mixing the colours on the canvas – it’s always going to be a poor reflection of what you’re aiming for.

Q : Where do you get your inspiration from?

A : Visions. For me it’s a process of being receptive. I meditate every morning at the beginning of my writing session, I try to dissolve my ego, to disappear as a conscious entity. It sounds kinda weird but it’s really just closing your eyes and letting go. Then I shift my awareness towards Eyri, and see where I pop up. I write what I see, no matter how ridiculous it seems. I just try and be a witness, without judging. Some days I’m on fire. Some days I just see the blinking cursor, and hear the rain on the roof. That’s why I’ve got to be there every day. I still don’t know when the inspiration will hit me, I can’t invoke it beyond just being in a place where I can use it when it comes.

Two pallets of books departed from India today, bound for South Africa and the UK. Thomson Press did the printing again, and I’m expecting the same excellent quality that they delivered with The Riddler’s Gift. I’ve seen the advance copies and they look amazing! I’m so glad I chose to go with hardcover for this limited first edition. It’s light and feels solid. Shiny!